Marc Smith visits the Heat 3 of the New Alt Competition

Heat 3 sees five returning teams in Group A, RED DEVILS gaining a reprieve from relegation due to the non-appearance of Norwegian team SKEIDAR, who finished second in Group B last time out. GUPTA are thus the only team to go down, replaced by Group B champions, EDMONDS. The hot pre-tournament favourites are surely MOSS, the runaway winners of Heat 2. They won eight of their first nine matches, with their only loss by just 2 IMPs prior to the final match, when they had already secured first place.

As usual, we begin with some problems. We will find out later how your choices would have worked. For a change, we start with a lead problem. You are West holding:

What do you lead?

Secondly, with just your side vulnerable, you are East with this hand:

What action, if any, do you take?

Welcome to the big leagues! Newly promoted to Group A, Jodi Edmonds soon found herself faced with the lead problem posed above on a less-than informative auction. Let’s first see how much easier the problem was in one of the other top matches:

Having narrowly avoided relegation, you begin this campaign against the hot favourites and soon find yourself on lead against this slam. Fortunately for the Belgians, Steven De Donder was listening carefully to the auction, and he opened the defence with the ♣8. One can question whether Bas Drijver’s hand is good enough to roll out Blackwood once his partner has denied a club control. The contract has no chance on a club lead, and Sjoert Brink was soon two down. N/S -200.

Valerie Labaere started with a jump to 3♠ , a natural slam try, and heard a diamond cue-bid from her partner. Knowing that her partner’s clubs were at best queen-high, she decided that she had done her bit already by showing slam interest. Alain had no reason to bid on, and quite right he was as John Hurd also found a club lead from the East seat. Declarer was allowed to make twelve tricks but, presumably, would not have done so had the ♣Q been the setting trick to take in a slam: N/S +680 and 13 IMPs to RED DEVILS.

The Poles started with a transfer at the two level, and now Piotr Zikorski’s jump to 4♠ showed some slam interest, Michal Klukowski was not inspired. Agustin Madala led the standard diamond, but Klukowski soon settled for eleven tricks: N/S +650.

Which brings us neatly back to Jodi Edmonds’ opening lead at the fourth table.

At most tables, North thought his hand was worth only a slam try. Zach Grossack evidently had more faith in his partner’s declarer play than other North players, and he effectively drove to slam unassisted.

My guess is that most members of an expert panel would lead a diamond on this auction. A club, I suspect, would be most players’ last option. Edmonds’ choice of the ♥ 2 gave nothing away, and looking at just the North/South cards, it is hardly obvious how declarer comes to twelve tricks. Larry Lebowitz demonstrated how.

He won the first trick in dummy with the ♥Q and immediately played a spade to the ace and another back to dummy’s jack. Joel Wooldridge won with the ♠Q and returned a heart to declarer’s ace. Now Lebowitz crossed to the ♦A and began running his trumps. Wooldridge cannot afford to release a heart or a diamond, so he began shedding clubs. Declarer did the same, jettisoning the ♣2, the ♣4 and then the ♣J. When Lebowitz cashed dummy’s final trump, Wooldridge discarded the ♣Q, and now declarer released the ♦10, its job done. The ♦K put declarer back in his hand, where he cashed the ♥K and then led his carefully-preserved low club to dummy’s ten, finessing West’s ♣K. A spectacular N/S +1430 and 13 IMPs to LEBOWITZ.

Yes, astute readers will have noticed that declarer could have thrown his remaining club on dummy’s last trump and then cashed the ♣A to squeeze East in the red suits, but Lebowitz’s line is surely prettier.

LEBOWITZ was the biggest winner in this round, defeating EDMONDS 54-13 to leave the newcomers propping up the table. DE BOTTON beat DONNER 36-27 and RED DEVILS held on for a 33-32 victory over MOSS.

Round 2 pitted together the top two teams from Heat 2, MOSS vs DONNER. Like a wounded animal, though, MOSS had been roused by losing their undefeated status in Round 1. Board 9 in this stanza was always likely to generate some big swings, and it didn’t disappoint:

Jacek Kalita got the ball rolling with a speculative 4♠ opening in third seat. Brad Moss doubled and Michael Nowosadzki’s redouble was described as ‘natural, good hand, no special discussion’ but, as a passed hand, he surely had good spade support. Joe Grue showed two places to play with his 4NT and, when Moss’s 5♦ came back to him, Kalita took the not unreasonable decision to bid again. With no first-round controls, Grue’s decision to defend rather than advance to the six-level at adverse vulnerability is hardly surprising.

Moss’s opening lead, the ♣8, removed a lot of the guesswork for declarer. Never tempted by the club finesse, he rose with the ♣A and ran the ♠10 successfully. When the four-level doubler turned up with the ♥A, as expected, that was N/S +650.

When Kevin Dwyer opened the North hand, he created an entirely different scenario. Cecilia Rimstedt responded with a 1♥ transfer to spades, and Bas Drijver climbed in with 2NT, showing the red suits. In a clear attempt to slow the auction down, Dwyer passed, despite holding four-card spade support. He could hardly pass again, though, when the auction came back to him at the five-level with his partner having bid game in spades on her own. Sjoert Brink’s 6♥ bid, perhaps unsound but effective, simply added fuel to the fire. Rimstedt, now sure that both sides had a double fit, took the last guess and decided that she could not risk defending a vulnerable slam when 6♠ would surely be cheap.

Declarer here received no great help from Drijver’s opening lead, the ♦K. Rimstedt ruffed and led a heart. Drijver rose with the ♥A and switched to his club but, having now seen dummy, might he not do exactly the same holding ♣K-8 doubleton? Rimstedt thought so and finessed. Brink scored the ♣K and promptly delivered his partner’s ruff. Declarer ruffed the diamond continuation, crossed to the ♥K, and led a trump. When Brink followed low, Rimstedt decided to play West for a 2-5-5-1 shape for his 2NT bid, and so she rose with the ♠A. Brink’s ♠K thus became the fourth defensive trick: N/S -500 and a massive 15 IMPs to MOSS.

MOSS won 66-12, which gave them almost a maximum 20-0 win in VPs. Only DE BOTTON’s 56-13 victory over LEBOWITZ kept the favourites out of first place, but there was little between those two teams, and they would meet head on in Round 3.

Board 4 created swings around the room:

A 2/1 auction from the Norwegians carried them to an excellent small slam. Hoftaniska’s main problem was that spades were, presumably, the ‘agreed suit’ when he rolled out RKCB. It was conceivable that he was facing ♠A-K-Q and the ♥A was missing, but he had no way to ask about the ♦Q, even if he wanted to. It was a reasonable assumption that his partner had not responded at the two-level on 10-x-x-x, though, so the slam was likely to be a good one. That Charlsen held only two spades rather than the three that might have been expected on this auction was a real bonus for declarer.

Although the spade finesse failed, the 3-3 break meant that there was nothing in the play: N/S +1370.

The Polish auction seemed to be going well right up until the final bid. Indeed, that Jacek Kalita’s response to Blackwood also denied a king as well as showing two key cards and the ♦Q seems to make Michael Nowosadzki’s jump to the grand slam even harder to fathom. The only explanation that I can come up with is that he thought the jump to 4♠ was a splinter so, when he found all of the key cards opposite, he expected a singleton ace. Even then, though, the grand slam is surely too ambitious if South holds only four trumps, bearing in mind that the ♣K is known to be missing. Where are all those losing spades going? Very strange. N/S -200 and 17 IMPs to DE BOTTON.

Adam Grossack’s not unreasonable decision to open 1♦ made this auction much easier. Larry Lebowitz showed an invitational hand with a diamond fit, and Grossack Blackwooded himself to the top spot. N/S +1370.

By contrast, the Belgian auction was complicated not only by the 1♠ opening, but also by the two-way 2/1 response. Mike Vandervorst’s 2♣  showed either a minimum spade raise or some sort of game-forcing hand, either with clubs or balanced. It now seems that Philippe Caputo’s first priority was to show a hand that would have passed a minimum raise to 2♠. Only when Vandervorst showed a game-forcing balanced hand did Caputo even mention his diamond suit, and by then it sounded more like a ‘heart weakness’ probe for 3NT rather than AKJxx. Indeed, that interpretation is borne out by South’s jump to 4♠ on just doubleton support. The spades at least behaved well enough that there were not four trump losers: N/S +650 but 12 IMPs to LEBOWITZ.

DE BOTTON scored a 36-6 victory over MOSS to take a 10-VP lead at the top of the table. RED DEVILS beat LEBOWITZ 33-25 to move into second place, 5 VPs ahead of MOSS. As luck would have it, Round 4 again brought the leading two teams together in head-to head action, DE BOTTON vs RED DEVILS.

East was faced with the second of this week’s bidding problems at both tables in the top match. Janet De Botton opted to rebid her seven-card major when South’s pre-emptive 3♦ overcall came back to her. Artur Malinowski raised to game, but that just meant one additional undertrick as things turned out.

Alain Labaere led a heart to the jack and queen. Lacking an entry to dummy, declarer tried a low trump from hand. South hopped up with the ♠10 and continued with the ♥10, and the defenders took their two tricks in that suit. Valerie Labaere then exited with a fourth round of hearts, ruffed by declarer. Of course, de Botton played ace and another spade now to ‘endplay’ North into leading a club. Declarer was bound to go wrong now and duly lost to the singleton ♣K for two down. E/W -200.

After the same start, Geert Arts reopened with a double on the East hand, and Steve de Roos was quite happy to convert that for penalties. The Belgians got off to the best start, the ♠9 to East’s ace, a spade ruff, a club to the ace and a third round of spades. When declarer ruffed with the ♦J, though, de Roos overruffed with the ♦Q, and now declarer had to lose only the ♦A and a heart trick for two down. E/W +300 and 11 IMPs to RED DEVILS.

Had de Roos pitched a heart on the third round of spades, he can then win the first round of trumps with the queen and switch to the ♥K. The defenders cannot then be prevented from scoring either a second heart trick (if declarer ducks the ace) or a heart ruff for three down.

RED DEVILS just edged the match, 33-31. Elsewhere, MOSS returned to winning ways with a 29-17 victory over EDMONDS and DONNER saw off LEBOWITZ 39-19.

After four of the ten matches in this double round robin, the standings were:

In the other divisions, the two teams flying an English flag lead Group B, ORCA with a 10-VP lead over BLACK, who in turn are the same margin clear of the Turks, SALVO, in third place. In GROUP C, FREDIN (Sweden, Denmark, Italy, South Africa, Netherlands) narrowly lead HOK (Netherlands), with both nearly 20 VPs clear of the rest. In Group D, ULI (Austria, Poland) hold a 10-VP lead over OBJECTIVITY (Netherlands, England), who are a further 10 VPs ahead of third-placed CANADIAN & FRIENDS.

We will be back next week with the best of the action from the later matches.